A Chris Buck feature and King of the Elves are also moving briskly along.

So perhaps you were right with what you said in another thread then Sotiris and Chris Buck isn't directing Snow Queen. If Snow Queen is supposedly planned for 2013, shouldn't we know the director soon? Is it likely that the hand-drawn film mentioned is the one Ron Clements and John Musker are working on or could it be a seperate hand-drawn feature?

So perhaps you were right with what you said in another thread then Sotiris and Chris Buck isn't directing Snow Queen. If Snow Queen is supposedly planned for 2013, shouldn't we know the director soon?

Chris Williams' King of the Elves is slated for 2013. So, since Steve Hulett said that the Chris Buck feature (whether it's Snow Queen or not) is moving along too, I suppose that one could be slated for a 2014 release.

Disney and Pixar are so secretive they won't let anything out. Don't forget that they had officially announced Wreck-It Ralph, only a month ago, when the film is only a year away from getting released.

Q: Paul, how does you’re job role of head of story differ from any other role in story department?

Paul Briggs: Well a story supervisor is more about managing this team. I am working directly with Chris Williams and a writer on a project now, trying to craft the beats of the story. I feel like I am managing a construction crew and we are laying the foundation now and the construction crew is going to get bigger and bigger and eventually animation will come in and then effects will come in.

Q: Is there any particular work that you have done in your career that you are particularly proud of that you can point out?

Paul Briggs: The work I am doing right now. [...] I am very proud of the amount of work and dedication I am putting into the film. I am excited to be under the leadership of Chris Williams.

Q: What are you all working on at the moment?

John Kahrs: Right now I am directing a short film … that… is all I can say at the moment!

Paul Briggs: This is the toughest question for everyone!

John Kahrs: It hasn’t been announced … it’s going to be amazing, since it hasn’t been announced at all … the fact that I said I am doing it is kind of enough.

Clay Kaytis: I have been focusing on the film that comes out after Paul's film, so if his is unannounced then mine is certainly unannounced!!

Q: These are all shorts?

Clay Kaytis: No, features but the good underlying message is that there is a lot going on in the studio!

Paul Briggs: Yeah I am extremely excited about the future because of the leadership in place, I am excited about our directors and there amazing filmic sense and there ability, I am working with Chris Williams on a film that Chris is directing he just has one of those great story minds. I am excited about the future.

So, Paul Briggs is working as a story supervisor on King of the Elves, John Kahrs is directing a short film, and Clay Kaytis is working on the film that comes after King of the Elves (the Chris Buck feature perhaps?)

Q: Any more upcoming features, anything that you have up there in the future for you?

Peter del Vecho: Well, right after this, next year will be Wreck-It Ralph, a very funny CG movie about videogames of the 60’s coming into the present day. Then we’ve got another movie, King of the Elves coming up, again a very different world. And then a movie that I’m working on that hasn’t been announced yet. So, we have a big line-up of films coming up. In fact, we have more films in development that we can possibly put in production. So, it’s a great time at the studo.

Apparently not for everyone, otherwise Dejas, Keane, and Menken wouldn’t be looking elsewhere for work.

Good point. I can't believe Disney can't manage to treat creative people like Deja, Keane and Menken better and give them work. They have played such an important part at the studio and should be treated with more respect. Also, talented people like Deja, Keane and Menken should continue to influence the studio and it's movies in my opinion.

Well as for Keane - he was probably mistreated during the Rapunzel to Tangled shift and felt insulted and unappreciated and that's why he's shopping around.

Dejas - I think he is just fed up with CGI. I mean back around 2004-2006 when hand drawn had been declared dead at Disney and what was in production was:

Chicken Little
Rapunzel: Unbraided (Tangled)
American Dog (BOLT)

... and potentially others, he chose to work on Bambi 2 - a direct-to-dvd film - because it was hand-drawn - rather than work on the next Disney Animated Classic as they were all CGI.

Menken - I don't think he plans to leave Disney permanently, but they probably don't have any work for him at the moment. They didn't select him for Princess and the Frog or Winnie the Pooh, and Wreck-it-Ralph doesn't appear to be a musical, who knows if any upcoming Disney film is a musical?

Apparently not for everyone, otherwise Dejas, Keane, and Menken wouldn’t be looking elsewhere for work.

Good point. I can't believe Disney can't manage to treat creative people like Deja, Keane and Menken better and give them work. They have played such an important part at the studio and should be treated with more respect. Also, talented people like Deja, Keane and Menken should continue to influence the studio and it's movies in my opinion.

You have to keep in mind that the same thing happened to a lot of the Nine Old Men. Yes, Frank and Ollie and Eric all stayed on for a long time training new talent - but a lot of the other guys left to work on their own personal stuff. I would think that Glen Keane and Eric Goldberg are going to be filling those shoes in the coming years and will eventually retire themselves. And then in 30 years we'll be talking about the fourth generation of Disney artists.

On the theatrical front, Disney is into the production of Wreck-It Ralph, and in development with King of the Elves, Snow Queen, and a hand-drawn picture from Ron-John. (I think I'm forgetting a property or two. Oh well.)

Anonymous #1 wrote:

John Kahrs' short film is in production.

Anonymous #2 wrote:

I read Disney is working on an adaptation of Charles Perrault's fairy tale "Donkeyskin". Is it true? If it's true, I will love it. "Donkeyskin" is my favourite fable. Are Ron & John the directors of this fairy tale?

I was there in the big building on Riverside Drive this afternoon, and the various jams and jellies we call animated features were percolating merrily in their various pots ...

Wreck-It Ralph is working its way through the production pipeline. There doesn't seem to be a lot of it in the lighting, texturing, final departments as yet, but a staffer who is working on Prep and Landing No. 2 says they'll start getting some of it soon. (Upstairs in the story department, there are still story revisions going on. There are always story tweaks.)

King of the Elves gets a look-see from Mr. Lasseter within weeks; the people I talked to didn't know (or weren't saying) if the project the next feature to roll to the end of the production runway, but I wouldn't be surprised if it is.

There's other things in the development that I haven't seen discussed much of anywhere, so I'm not going to mention them here.

Back at the feature building on Riverside Drive, morale is better. Said a Diz Co. artist on the second floor:

"... They screened the King of the Elves story reels for us, and they look really good. John [Lasseter] has been down since last week reviewing projects, and I think we're going to be doing one film a year for the next three years. Wreck-It Ralph, then King of the Elves, and then whatever's ready. There's a couple other projects in work. And Ron [Clements] and John [Musker] are going to be pitching to John ..."

There's also animated shorts being done, and the atmosphere just seems ... I donno ... lighter.

"We haven't started animating on Wreck-It Ralph yet, but everything else is in work ..."

I got to see some very nice artwork for a feature in development but not yet greenlit, and one of the creators on the third floor told me he would be pitching a couple of projects to Mr. Lasseter in the next few weeks.

"I'm trying to cut the pitches down to one board apiece. The fewer words and dialogue up there, the better." ...

I went to lunch with a Disney long-timer who said it's nice the place has more stuff in development. We both agreed there wasn't near enough a year (or two) ago, but now? Better. Definitely better.

Steve Hulett wrote:

Ron and John have made several pitches. I keep seeing people here mention Rumpelstiltskin, but I haven't seen any artwork, so I have no idea. (Maybe I haven't been looking. Maybe I'm thick. Probably both.)

I have seen artwork for another picture they're developing that hasn't been greenlit for production, nor announced, so I ain't going to talk about it here.

I'm assuming (but do not know) that King of the Elves will be the next picture into production. I'm informed that the story reels are well along, and look good.

I don't know whether Snow Queen is still in story development or dead in the water. I've heard some stories about it, but I won't repeat them here.

Anonymous wrote:

One of the animated features in development at Disney may be a Phineas and Ferb/Zeke and Luther/Zack and Cody-type feature called Donovan and Decker, which may be the feature in which Steve said to have seen the artwork. Before you think I'm one of those trolls popping up all over the place, let me tell you something.

Have you bothered to read what the original artist had to say about the comic through the link?

So apparently a few people are getting the wrong idea about this comic. I'm not trying to suggest that Disney is bad and that I have received "good advice" in staying AWAY from them. I'm trying to say that by listening to all the negative advice I haven't been able to achieve with my life what I set out to do as a kid and that I'm not as happy as I should be.

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